The Greatest Wagner Concert Ever!

The Empress Theatre has reopened after two long years of a darkened venue due to the COVID pandemic.
On Saturday, January 15, 2022 at 7:30 p.m., Bay Area classical music lovers will experience an electrifying evening of music by the great German composer Richard Wagner. This concert will include excerpts from Tannhaeuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Walkuere, Lohengrin, The Flying Dutchman and Die Meistersinger von Nuremberg. Soprano Othalie Graham will be featured in the well-known Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde and in dramatic arias from Die Walkuere and Tannhaeuser.

Richard Wagner portrayed the power of love in majestic vocal and instrumental music that remains as relevant and awe-inspiring now as it was in the composer's time. Long before Stars Wars or Lord of the Ring lit up the cinema, Wagner envisioned grand dramatic spectacles – part fairy tale, part allegory – told through the most moving and exciting music ever composed. The Vallejo Center for the Arts will present excerpts from Wagner's masterworks that have captivated audiences for more than a century in The Greatest Wagner Concert Ever!

Canadian-American soprano Othalie Graham consistently receives international critical acclaim and is widely known for her commitment to Wagnerian repertoire. The Boston Globe noted that Graham's "timbre and power were thrilling – with a steely ring from top to bottom." Her's is a voice of heroic proportions, and she possesses a remarkable musicality and an interpretative imagination as incandescent as the music itself.

Conductor Thomas Conlin has led symphonic and operatic performances on five continents. His recording of American composer George Crumb's orchestral masterpiece, Star-Child, with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Chorus and soloists won a Grammy, and his recordings of the piano concertos of Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri have been highly praised in American and international publications.